Object placement or layout design is a vital component of many practical software applications. Background layout in animated movies, video game map development, crime or accident scene simulation, interior design applications (e.g., home design software) and computerized virtual graphical social spaces such as Second Life™ are examples of applications that require various object placement functions to be carried out.
Such applications typically require arduous manipulation of graphical objects in the virtual world by means of a mouse or other input devices. For example, one might place multiple block objects in an axis aligned manner in a 2D virtual world using a constraint satisfaction algorithm. However, there is currently no ability for an application to understand and act upon a designer's command, such as, “Put the wardrobe in that corner”, which uses a combination of natural language and gesture.
It will be appreciated that a computer system that can receive multi-modal inputs such as natural language, gesture, text, sketch and other inputs in order to manipulate graphical objects in a virtual world would provide desirable results.
It will further be appreciated that a computer system that can accurately manipulate graphical objects in a virtual world upon receiving multi-modal inputs that underspecify the user's instructions would provide desirable results.